While a family mourns N.H. EEE victim, some in Mass. take caution while others go on as

In Massachusetts, an 80-year-old Worcester County man is the first state resident since 2020 to become infected by EEE, which kills about 30 percent of those who contract it and leaves others in a vegetative state. His condition was unknown Wednesday.

The state has begun spraying a pesticide in Worcester and Plymouth County communities. Douglas, Oxford, Sutton, and Webster have been declared critical-risk communities for EEE by state public health officials, while Dudley, Northbridge, Uxbridge, Carver, Middleborough, and Plymouth are considered high-risk.

And New Hampshire earlier this month identified three communities at high risk, and another 20 at moderate risk of contracting arborviral diseases, which are spread by mosquitoes and ticks. Most of those are clustered in the southeast and central parts of the state.

But some residents of the higher risk communities appear to be unworried about EEE, while others took precautions.

In Dudley, people are aware of the virus but few appeared to be staying indoors, 75-year-old Peter Germano said as he picked up a doughnut and coffee at Dippin’ Donuts on Main Street.

Germano, a science teacher at the Southern Worcester County Educational Collaborative in town, said he avoids mosquitoes in the evening with “long sleeves and spray” and is skeptical about the spraying effort.

“Spraying every mosquito is an impossible goal,” Germano said.

Others were more concerned. Anna Tanca, 95, said she worries about the virus and avoids spending time outdoors.

“They love me,” the Dudley resident said of mosquitoes. “They bite me all the time.”

Tanca wears long black sleeves and pants and goes directly from her house to her car to the store, making only quick trips to the doughnut shop a few times a week.

“I’m too old to stay out anyways,” she quipped.

In Uxbridge, 63-year-old Sue Dion is also making changes. ”I walk a lot, and I’m more careful about where I choose to walk and what time I go,” Dion said.

She no longer spends time relaxing by her fire pit, though that’s how she likes to spend weekends. She’s concerned because the virus isn’t treatable and has a high mortality rate.

”The only way to avoid it is not to get bit by mosquitoes,” she said.

Richard Pollack, a public health entomologist who serves as an adviser to several state agencies, said the chance of becoming infected is “pretty slim,” but the consequences of contracting the illness provide plenty of reason to take caution.

“Some proportion of the people who become exposed will get sick,” Pollack said. “A large proportion of the people who get sick are going to become profoundly ill. And it’s something between a third and a half of the human cases end in fatality.”

For those who survive, he said, “there’s a very good chance that you will never return to a normal existence.”

David Hamer, a professor of global health and medicine at the Boston University School of Public Health, said Worcester and Plymouth County residents should be “moderately” concerned about EEE, adding the recommendation to stay indoors in the evening “is a little restrictive.”

“It’s summer,” he said. “People may not want to do that, but if they’re going to be outdoors, they should definitely be attentive to anti-mosquito measures.”

Gary Rousseau, 71, a retired contractor in Dudley who has spent the last couple of months by the water working on his boat at night, seemed more concerned about the pesticide than the virus.

“There are chemicals in that spray, and we don’t know what’s in it,” he said.

The pesticide used is Anvil 10+10, which a spokesperson for the Massachusetts Department of Agriculture described as an “ultra-low volume . . . aerosol that uses very small quantities of the insecticide.”

“It is unlikely that a person would be exposed to amounts that would cause adverse health effects,” the department said in a statement.

But Jay Feldman, executive director of Beyond Pesticides, a Washington, D.C.-based environmental group, accused the state of downplaying the risks.

“This is a neurotoxic chemical,” he said. “There are vulnerable populations, from children to the elderly and people with preexisting conditions. The state should not be downplaying the adverse effects.”

Feldman added that the public should be warned to avoid exposure. The website of the Central Mass. Mosquito Control Project asks residents to remain indoors for at least 15 to 20 minutes during mosquito spraying and to close windows and turn off window air conditioning units.

In Uxbridge, Town Manager Steven A. Sette said some homeowners complained that they were not allowed to opt out of the pesticide spraying.

“As you can imagine we have some residents who are upset by the spraying that will be going on, primarily because the communication as to when, how and what the spraying that was occurring was minimal to say the least,” Sette said in an email. “Residents have had no time to prepare/protect their properties.”

Perry, the New Hampshire man, died at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston surrounded by family on Aug. 19, according to an online obituary.

Jim Perry said his brother’s condition deteriorated rapidly. “It was extremely sudden,” he said. “He basically didn’t feel well one morning.” He said Steven “went from perfectly healthy and happy” to being “airlifted to Mass. General.”

“Within a week that disease went right through him,” he said.

Approximately 115 cases of EEE have been recorded in Massachusetts since it was first identified in the state in 1938, officials said. The last outbreak began five years ago, when 12 people were infected with EEE, six of whom died. That outbreak continued in 2020 with five cases, including one fatality. Before that, an outbreak had hit Massachusetts from 2010 to 2012.

This year, the first case of EEE in an animal in Massachusetts was confirmed in a Plymouth County horse in July, followed by the first human infection, which was announced Aug 16. In New Hampshire, EEE has been detected in one horse and seven batches of mosquitoes, state officials said.

In Plymouth, officials have been closing public parks and fields from dusk to dawn — peak feeding hours for mosquitoes. On Tuesday evening, residents and visitors were enjoying breezy late summer weather, with planes set to begin dropping pesticide at any moment.

At Pilgrim Memorial State Park, Kevin Champignie, 54, said he was “not at all” concerned about getting EEE.

“It’s beautiful out, and so windy. What’s going to happen is going to happen,” he said. “I don’t care much about it. What I do is what I do.”

Just up the coast at Nelson Memorial Park, Jon Morgan, 50, said he was aware of the threat but would not let it affect him.

“I’m not going to live my life in fear and not do the things that I love to do,” he said as he watched his dogs run around the park. “If I get triple E, I get triple E.”

Adam Piore and Travis Andersen of the Globe staff and correspondents Kiera McDonald and Jacqueline Munis contributed to this report.

Jeremy C. Fox can be reached at jeremy.fox@globe.com. Follow him @jeremycfox. Rachel Umansky-Castro can be reached at rachel.umanskycastro@globe.com. Emily Sweeney can be reached at emily.sweeney@globe.com. Follow her @emilysweeney and on Instagram @emilysweeney22.